A. Tsau, Burpee Materials Technology, LLC, Eatontown, NJ; B. Beach , Flexible Stenting Solutions Inc. , Eatontown, NJ; J. Burpee, Flexible Stenting Solutions Inc., Eatontown, NJ
The upper leg has arteries which include the superficial femoral and popliteal (SFA/Pop) arteries. Like the coronary arteries, plaque can accumulate in these arteries resulting in peripheral artery disease. This disease is characterized by long occlusions or blockages in the leg. During walking, stair climbing and other normal activities, the arteries can dramatically bend, rotate, elongate and compress as the knee flexes. A dedicated and novel fully connected SFA/Pop stent that offers flexibility, durability, conformability and strength – the FlexStent® – was designed for this unique application. Using ABAQUS, the various modes of movement were modeled and the strain responses were evaluated. Through the series of research and developments, the survivability and excellence of the stent design/structure were numerically analyzed and further confirmed, of which otherwise obtaining a closed-form analytical solution would not be practical at all due to the prohibitions resulted from the structural complexity. Further details such as modeling approach designs, verification and validation analyses are demonstrated and the final outputs were correlated to in vitro fatigue testing. Keywords:
Fatigue, bending, twisting, axial compression, validation, nitinol, stent, medical device, FEA, ABAQUS, superficial femoral, popliteal, femoropopliteal, FlexStent
